Meet Senator Millionaire (Wealth in the Senate)

[RamboLiberal]

http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/senator_1.html

<snip>

Bob Corker, senator-elect from Tennessee, boasts an estimated $64 million to $236 million fortune, according to the financial disclosure he filed to the Senate. Claire McCaskill, the senator-to-be from Missouri, has a portfolio worth roughly $13 million to $29 million.

<snip>

Jim Webb, who ousted Senator George Allen of Virginia, is perhaps the splashiest millionaire of the bunch. After serving in the Reagan Pentagon, he penned six best-selling novels as well as the script for the film Rules of Engagement starring Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones.

Webb reported an estimated $2.3 million to $6.9 million in stocks and bonds. He also cited a $150,000 contract with Warner Brothers for an ongoing film project, with a $1 million option for screenwriting and $250,000 to produce the film.

Not all the freshmen senators have struck gold, however. Jon Tester, the flat-topped senator-elect from Montana, is as humble as his man-of-the-people image suggests.

He told The New York Times that he has earned barely $20,000 a year farming in the last decade. Aside from his ranch, which is valued at $600,000 to $1 million, he owns shares in just one stock, American Electric Power, and a stake in a bond fund. His securities portfolio is worth no more than $30,000 and as little as $2,000.

[JI7]

1. Bob Corker is hypocrite like Bush

i didn't know about this money situation. but Corker and the Republican party pretty much accused Ford of being some wealthy elitist who is out of touch. and trying to make himself look like some regular guy.

[izzie]

2. And if they are rich they must be smart. Right?

Like Bush and a few others we read about.

[acmejack]

3. Or like in Corker's case crooked...

But IOKIYAAR

[cosmik debris]

4. $64 million to $236 million?????

That extreme margin of error makes this report NOT credible. If they cant even get within $100 million, they aren't very good.

[hughee99]

5. The range is based on what the Senators report...

"It is difficult to pinpoint a senator's precise worth because they are required to disclose only the ranges of dollar values into which their assets fall, rather than an exact figure. Therefore, it's unclear for example whether Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota's senator-elect, is a millionaire: She reported assets of $325,000 and $1.4 million."

[Ninja Jordan]

6. Tester's my kind of guy.

[Greyhound]

7. It generally takes a Senator about half the first term to "make some really

good investments" and make that first million. It is pervasive and has nothing to do with the letter after the name.

[karynnj]

8. It is more pevasive than it should be

and it indicates stronger rules are needed and they need to be re-inforced.

The danger of people "buying congressmen" is there and the cost is far too high to our democracy. The problem is that it extends beyond the compromised people.

This was never shown in a starker way to me than when John Kerry fought to expose BCCI. Though Kerry was able to prove that it had facilitaed drug money laundering, had backed Pakistan's development of a nuclear bomb, in defiance of anti perfiliferation law, and had allowed global criminals to send money around the world covertly, he stood alone. He was called by people like Jimmy Carter and Jackie Onassis, two people who themselves were completely not involved, begging him to shut down the investigation because Democratic big wigs and money men were complicit and bought off. It was later found that OBL had millions in BCCI. Senator Kerry supposedly wore a bullet proof vest and clearly risked being a permanent outcast in the Democratic party, but he was right. It is beyond disturbing to me that such an evil organization could have so much power reaching into our federal government - and that no one, other than Senator Kerry, was willing to say it was wrong.

It does say that if you want someone who likely could not be bought by money. power or position - Senator Kerry may be the answer - clearly he is an honest man. (Note: he was NOT wealthy at that time.)

[Greyhound]

9. Not only is our government for sale, but adding insult to injury,

they are astonishingly cheap. In general, an industry only has to spend a couple of million dollars to write and pass legislation that will net them billions. Any loan shark knows you should get at least 60% of the net.